Italiano
Aware is the title of the first LP by the band Youvoid (formed in 2011) and follows the release of their self-produced EP Nowhere in 2013.
The album was written between 2013 and 2015 by Fabio Rossi (music) and Lydia Pisani (lyrics), with the contribution of Pierfrancesco Patrisso (guitar) and Alessandro Gnudi (bass), and the external collaboration of Fabio Resta (Meraklija ensemble, Sofya ensemble Tarab ensemble) on drums and Massimiliano Gallo (Proteus 911, Eco Nuel) on violin.
The choice of title, an excerpt from the song that opens the record, has a double meaning: it contains a summary of personal but also shared awareness, where music becomes the means of expressing this process, involving the band in the first place and then the listener in a sort of “Solutio Alchemica”.
The themes of the songs address crucial topics: the existence of a soul and its survival after death (Aware, A Prayer of Flying Souls), the mystery of a force that creates and sustains creation (Ghost Flower), freedom (I’m not Free), love (Feblee), the Jungian shadow aspect and dreams (the Stranger), the traps built by interpersonal psychological dynamics that restrict our freedom to be ourselves to the full (in the Wood , Wise Girl), the “danger” that must be confronted by those who decide to move closer to that inner space (in the Wood, the Tower), which appeared in the previous EP Nowhere as a “non-place” with no pathways, a maze in which to lose oneself, looking to lead the listener back, and finally the question that triggers the whole process: “what remains, of happy days?”.
The inner space of Nowhere is traversed, explored and the “labyrinth of thoughts” (“Nowhere, I’m lost / I’m dancing in the maze of my thoughts“) is transformed into a lived experience that is filtered by the perception that something greater and more mysterious is at work inside every person.
The album was composed over numerous junctures and it was decided to continue to use electronic sounds, but also to add acoustic sounds to allow the freedom to use the song form in a more simple and direct way (Feeble ), underlining the band’s style, which tends to choose a kind of minimalism in the arrangement and construction of the melodies; in most songs Lydia’s voice alternates with Fabio’s, who often sings against the melodies and is the main voice on In the Wood, The Stranger and Wise Girl, in which he improvises hip-hop style vocals; while Pierfrancesco’s guitar is always whispered, never wanting to overpower the melodies, instead it supports the low-driving rhythms, synths and keyboards, in a symmetrical game full/empty − the concept expressed in the band’s name.
Youvoid is a project started in June 2011 in Bologna by Fabio Rossi and Lydia Pisani. The songs were written at home using an electronic drum machine, Fabio’s musical ideas and Lydia’s vocals.
After a period of rehearsals and re-arrangements, Youvoid recorded their first EP Nowhere (published and self-produced in May 2013). It was recorded by Enrico Capalbo (bass) and mixed by Michael Postpischl (Ofeliadorme) at Soporoco Studio.
Between 2013 and 2014 Pierfrancesco Patrisso (guitar) and Alessandro Gnudi (bass) joined the band. On April 2014 the band was selected to play in the semi-finals of the regional contest “Arezzo Wave Emilia Romagna”.
In the meantime, Fabio began to write new songs and sketch the forthcoming LP and Lydia continued to study “Belcanto” privately and became part of the Gregorian choir “Flatus Cordis” directed by Federica Leonardo; at the same time Lydia wrote the lyrics and vocals for Aware, which were recorded in the summer of 2015 by Michele Postpischl at Audio Line Studio Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna).
The band name was chosen one winter evening, while discussing the creative process triggered when you compose a song or write a text. The feeling of nullifying (or voiding) your “ego” to make room for the flow of emotions and creative intuition, was the main idea that inspired Lydia, then as a pun Fabio suggested the name Youvoid.
